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Panama: The Best of Tropical America - Birding Tour

Tour Overview:

Panama sits in an interesting location, with influences from North America, Central America, and even South America too, which leads to its extraordinary bird list of over 1000 species (yes, more than Costa Rica!). This tour is designed on two levels; to dip into the varied regions of the country, from Central Panama, where both the legendary Pipeline Road and Panama Canal are located, but also includes trips into Western Panama and the endemic-rich Chiriquí highlands, where Resplendent Quetzal lurks in the cloud forest, and also east of Panama City, where some species more typical of the Darien also occur. With recent taxonomic changes, this tour is also of particular interest to family listers, as there are now FIVE significant bird families on offer: Thrush-tanagers, represented by Rosy Thrush-tanager, possible right in Panama City, Wrenthrush, a highland species only found in Western Panama, which shares the same habitat with the Prong-billed Barbet, part of the two-species Toucan Barbet family; Dusky-faced Tanager, within the family of Mitrospingid Tanagers, possible at several sites on the tour; and last, but by no means least, the Sapayoa, an odd, inconspicuous, and local bird of lowland forest. While not all of these families can be guaranteed, this is the only country that offers a chance of all of these bird families on one single tour.